Occupational safety for associations and clubs

• Associations & clubs

Associations and clubs: constant turnover around the head office

Volunteer, project and internship placements often start and end between two annual training dates. The training duty applies to these people just as much, yet in day-to-day practice they are the easiest to overlook.

Volunteers without an employment contract are not employees within the meaning of section 2 (2) ArbSchG, so they do not count towards the thresholds in DGUV Regulation 2. If they are covered by statutory accident insurance, they still have to be trained, because section 4 of DGUV Regulation 1 extends the training duty to all insured persons.

Elected or appointed honorary office holders in non-profit organisations have the option of voluntary insurance with the VBG (section 6 (1) no. 3 SGB VII). This can apply, for example, to a club's volunteer board or to delegates who take on tasks on the board's behalf. People who serve in an honorary capacity on committees of employers' associations or trade unions can also insure themselves voluntarily. The application comes from the organisation, its umbrella body or the person concerned. Before applying, check whether a framework agreement already exists through the umbrella body.

Associations and clubs: accident insurance, economic sector, thresholds

At head office, policy officers, administrative staff, mini-jobbers and working students all count. Part-time staff count proportionally towards the threshold of 20: up to 20 hours a week as 0.5, up to 30 as 0.75. A regional association with its own legal form is an employer in its own right with its own duties, even if the federal association organises the support.

Where an association's risk assessment starts

• Volunteers and short-term staff. The training obligation attaches to the engagement, not to its duration. Depending on how it is arranged, volunteers are also covered by statutory accident insurance.
• Several small branch offices. First-aid supplies and trained first aiders have to be in place at each site, sized by the people present there at the same time, not only at head office.
• Events and meetings. General meetings and conferences fill rooms not designed for them. Escape route widths, seating and lighting have to be checked for each event.
• Storage for campaign material. Material moved twice a year gets stacked accordingly. Shelf stability, manual handling and clear routes are the typical findings here.

Where several associations share a building and their employees work at the same workplace, section 8 ArbSchG requires the employers to cooperate. In practice that usually means a shared escape and rescue plan, coordinated first aiders and an agreement on who leads an evacuation. The First-aid kit calculator shows how much first-aid material each site needs.

Walkthrough at an association: head office, meeting rooms, storage

Two patterns stand out. First, sites with no first-aid supplies and no first aiders of their own, because both are kept only at head office. Second, event rooms whose seating is left in the escape route after the last meeting. Add storage rooms with material above head height. On paper, an overview of who was trained when is usually missing.

Safety training in an association: induction before the first assignment

What works in practice is a short, standardised induction block delivered and documented before the first activity, rather than folding people into the next annual session, which many of them will no longer be there to attend. For events, add a short safety briefing on escape routes and the assembly point; for storage, lifting and shelf use.

A list kept at head office with name, date, topic and signature is enough as a record. The Training-interval calculator works out when the next refresher is due.

Related

• External occupational safety specialist: What the support includes and how the hours are worked out for a head office.
• Safety training in the office: how often and on what?: Content and frequency, including for people who are only involved briefly.
• Support group and WZ code under DGUV Regulation 2: Why associations under WZ 94.1, 94.2 or 94.9 fall into group III.
• Occupational safety specialist for offices in Berlin and eastern Germany: For associations with an office in the capital: the responsible bodies in Berlin and the eastern states.
• Safety officers in the office: When a larger association has to appoint safety officers.
• Occupational safety for education and training: For associations with their own academy or seminar programme.

Legal basis

• DGUV Regulation 2 (occupational physicians and safety specialists)
• Occupational Health and Safety Act (ArbSchG)
• DGUV Regulation 1 (principles of prevention)
• Social Code Book VII (SGB VII), statutory accident insurance
• Occupational Safety Act (ASiG)

Frequently asked questions